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Billy Elliot is a coming of age story about a teenager who wants to become a ballet dancer.

Set against the backdrop of the miners' strike, it's a powerful story of the triumph of a young boy's dreams in the face of adversity.

Northumberland pit

Billy Elliot was shot entirely in the North East using a variety of industrial locations.

Ellington Colliery closed in 2005

Much of it was filmed in Easington Village where the terraced streets doubled as a mining community at the time of the miners' strike.

However,Μύthe mining sequences were shot at Ellington and Lynemouth in Northumberland.

By that time Ellington Colliery was the only remaining mine in the North East - although it too has since closed (in 2005).

Producer Jon Finch said: "We didn't realise how hard it would be to find working pits."

Other North East locations included Newcastle and Dawdon Miner's Institute.

And the film was written by a Geordie - script writer Lee Hall.

Hall was interested in writing about the 1984 miners' strike, which he sees as one of the defining moments in British history.

"The strike left me with a sense of indignation which has fuelled much of my work," he said.